A novel spectrum sensing technique based on diversity reception

Spectrum sensing is one of the key technologies in Cognitive Radio. A conventional approach to sensing primary user signal is using single antenna. Due to multi-path fading and shadowing effect, detection is unreliable. This can make cognitive radio susceptible to the “hidden node” problem. This paper proposes a novel spectrum sensing technique based on diversity reception by combining multi-antenna technology with energy detection. Firstly, received signals of primary users coming from every antenna are processed by diversity reception technique. Secondly, cognitive user judges the presence of primary user by energy detection. Simulation results show: Spectrum sensing technique based on diversity reception could improve reliability of energy detection and increase the detection performance significantly to primary user signal, overcoming the “hidden node” problem effectively.